This Ghost Is a Machine

ENLARGE

Daniel Paisner at his home in Port Washington
Kevin Hagen for The Wall Street Journal

By

Matt McCue

Dec. 30, 2012 11:30 p.m. ET

Daniel Paisner will publish his 54th book early next year, the latest achievement in a quarter-century career marked by more best sellers than all but the very biggest names in publishing. Yet almost no one has heard of him, including most of his readers.

The largest print on the majority of Mr. Paisner's book covers go to celebrity names such as Denzel Washington, Serena Williams, Ed Koch, Anthony Quinn, George Pataki and Whoopi Goldberg. As a professional ghostwriter for autobiographies, Mr. Paisner must lay low and channel the voices of his famous partners.

ENLARGE

Daniel Paisner ghostwrote this book with Montel Williams

"I happily introduce myself to people as a hack," said the 52-year-old author from Port Washington, N.Y. "I don't think that's a bad thing. It's what you bring to these hack assignments that stamps your game."

Mr. Paisner's next book, "Chasing Perfect," is the story of Bob Hurley, the St. Anthony's High School basketball coach from Jersey City who earned a berth in the sport's Hall of Fame two years ago. It will come out in March.

Even as publishing houses face increasing financial woes, there remains strong demand for seasoned ghostwriters like Mr. Paisner. The famous people most likely to drive memoir sales typically lack the literary chops to pen their own tell-alls.

"A good collaborator will push the celebrity further" than they would go on their own, said Robert Levine, a literary agent and attorney at Levine, Plotkin and Menin LLP. "The collaborator will ask for the details and force them to think deeply about their experience."

"It's a bit like having a psychoanalyst," he added.

Although Mr. Paisner conducts interviews with his subjects in a journalistic manner, he doesn't consider himself part of that profession. Where a reporter must typically strive for balance, the ghostwriter airs only the information his subject wishes to share with the public.

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Daniel Paisner ghostwrote this book with Armando Galarraga and Jim Joyce

"I capture their personality on the page and put their voice out to the world in a way they are happy with," Mr. Paisner said.

If he feels a sensitive subject is meaningful to the story's arc, he will steer the conversation to the most interesting place. When working with Anthony Quinn, for instance, Mr. Paisner waited a year before bringing up the actor's son, who drowned at a young age—a topic Mr. Quinn refused to talk about it in interviews. By that point, Mr. Paisner recalled, a mutual trust made it possible to explore that painful part of Quinn's life.

Quincy Troupe, the poet and ghostwriter behind the forthcoming life story of basketball legend Earl Monroe, can relate to the delicacy required on the job. "You want to ask the kinds of questions to get them to say what you want to say, but you can't say it," he said. "Earl might not say it like how you want to say it, but he will say it in his own way, which is OK, too."

Another key to making it as a ghostwriter—and 11 of Mr. Paisner's books have made it onto best-seller lists—is the ability to be a literary chameleon. The spectrum of personalities he's embodied runs from the hang-10 persona of surfing icon Izzy Paskowitz in a feel-good beach read, "Scratching the Horizon," to the conservative passion of politician Christine O'Donnell in her memoir, "Troublemaker."

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Daniel Paisner ghostwrote this book with Serena Williams.

Mel Berger, the agent at William Morris who represents Mr. Paisner, helps recruit subjects with life stories that would make good autobiographies. After Mr. Berger saw a "60 Minutes" episode on Mr. Hurley, he got the basketball coach on board for a book before suggesting Mr. Paisner as the scribe.

"What helps me get one gig after another is my ability to connect with people," Mr. Paisner said. "When I audition for a job, I tell these folks they can find a dozen writers who do what I do, so they should be looking for someone they trust."

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Daniel Paisner ghostwrote this book with Mark McEwen.

Mark Weinstein, the executive editor at Rodale Books, has purchased one of Mr. Paisner's coming projects, currently titled "Qaddafi's Point Guard." The contracts of collaborators like Mr. Paisner typically depend on the size of the deal and fame of the celebrity, he said.

"Some ghostwriters can and do earn six-figure fees, but the vast majority don't earn anything approaching that number," Mr. Weinstein said. The arrangement can involve a flat fee, a cut of the advance or a percentage of the royalties, but the copyright almost always remains with the subject. Once a ghostwriter sends in a final draft, the working relationship is over. Mr. Paisner has never toured to promote his co-written books.

The prolific ghostwriter has also published two novels under his own name. In fact, he said, collaborating with celebrities started as his version of waiting tables—something he could do to support his creative ambitions. But he learned the money was better and more reliable than what most novelists see.

And there's one key advantage to the life of a literary ghost: "The only difference between writing a book of your own and someone else is writer's block," he said. "When I'm writing someone else's story, there is no such thing as writer's block."

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